None of my three accounts have yet to reach "Elite" in combat so I guess there's still some untapped gameplay to be had in that. Though, given the recent revelations about how easy cheating is in the game, it's become hard for me to look at a player's combat rank without questioning how they got it.

None of my three accounts have yet to reach "Elite" in combat so I guess there's still some untapped gameplay to be had in that. Though, given the recent revelations about how easy cheating is in the game, it's become hard for me to look at a player's combat rank without questioning how they got it.

Indeed... I followed a link in the Thargoids and Guardians forum to this thread, and while I did call out Tacitus' first DBX discovery as "discovered back in September 2018", which is still true, it's led to me revisiting Tip-Offs, and creating a subsequent thread... tl;dr I think we need to start looking at tip-offs closer.

None of my three accounts have yet to reach "Elite" in combat so I guess there's still some untapped gameplay to be had in that. Though, given the recent revelations about how easy cheating is in the game, it's become hard for me to look at a player's combat rank without questioning how they got it.

None of my three accounts have yet to reach "Elite" in combat so I guess there's still some untapped gameplay to be had in that. Though, given the recent revelations about how easy cheating is in the game, it's become hard for me to look at a player's combat rank without questioning how they got it.

Meh*, ranks have been meaningless for a long time anyway. I'd warrant that the number of people who've got rank via cheating is absolutely dwarfed by the number of people who've got it via googling (or directly asking) 'what's the quickest / easiest way to get Combat/Exploration/Trade rank?''

The cheating thing is OT for this thread, so disregarding that...

It genuinely is very easy to legitimately get Elite in everything except CQC these days if someone chooses to go down that route. And some of it's been that way for ages.

Road to Riches. Passenger Missions. Even the Ram Tah mission at one point could be done following a guide in a matter of hours per run, and would pay out 201 MCr towards Trade Rank (at one point) or Exploration Rank (at another).

On it's own, the rank's not really much of a signifier of anything anymore. - Got to wonder how that's effected things like the Elite/Founder missions.

*With the meh being towards the situation, not your post, just for clarity!

Indeed... I followed a link in the Thargoids and Guardians forum to this thread, and while I did call out Tacitus' first DBX discovery as "discovered back in September 2018", which is still true, it's led to me revisiting Tip-Offs, and creating a subsequent thread... tl;dr I think we need to start looking at tip-offs closer.

I wonder if more will become of the 'Mysterious Stranger' missions as well. Last time I had one of those was last year on an alt-account. Annoyingly it came while I was in the middle of a load of stuff and it had expired when I spotted it.

You should try Thargoid combat zones, they are lot's of fun. Seeing the "Thargoid threat eliminated" message is quite rewarding. Yesterday I even helped some Anti-Xeno Initiative people to kill a hydra. You can see FDev put some time planning those game mechanics. I can't personally explore much anymore, because I think ADS should have retained more of it's former function, and FSS should have been reserved for new kind of stellar objects or phenomena. But apparently DW2 people had fun. CQC is fun, if a bit exhausting, and would function better if there were more players, or alternatively, powerups had a "shuffle function", changing location and quality randomly across the field, and therefore slightly more rewarding situational awareness and flight skill, if also, luck.
This sort of discussion is quite relevant in this topic, because many of us have played this game a lot, and seek to understand all mechanics in this game, what FDev is intending with various things they do. Concerning late topic of cheating in the game, (which breaks and demoralizes the community btw), it is quite obvious that the ultimate mystery in this game is not some game asset named "Raxxla", but the emphasis should be in seeking to understand, "what it is".

Tip off missions are very interesting, they seem to change after a while, I think Ian Doncaster has studied this game mechanic, and some of them tell stories about corporate entities interested in secretive operations and mass manipulation. I wonder what it all could mean. They would be ideal in telling a story in similar fashion to prelude to the coming of Thargoids.

You should try Thargoid combat zones, they are lot's of fun. Seeing the "Thargoid threat eliminated" message is quite rewarding. Yesterday I even helped some Anti-Xeno Initiative people to kill a hydra. You can see FDev put some time planning those game mechanics. I can't personally explore much anymore, because I think ADS should have retained more of it's former function, and FSS should have been reserved for new kind of stellar objects or phenomena. But apparently DW2 people had fun. CQC is fun, if a bit exhausting, and would function better if there were more players, or alternatively, powerups had a "shuffle function", changing location and quality randomly across the field, and therefore slightly more rewarding situational awareness and flight skill, if also, luck.
This sort of discussion is quite relevant in this topic, because many of us have played this game a lot, and seek to understand all mechanics in this game, what FDev is intending with various things they do. Concerning late topic of cheating in the game, (which breaks and demoralizes the community btw), it is quite obvious that the ultimate mystery in this game is not some game asset named "Raxxla", but the emphasis should be in seeking to understand, "what it is".

Tip off missions are very interesting, they seem to change after a while, I think Ian Doncaster has studied this game mechanic, and some of them tell stories about corporate entities interested in secretive operations and mass manipulation. I wonder what it all could mean. They would be ideal in telling a story in similar fashion to prelude to the coming of Thargoids.

Well, having undertaken DW2 I did enjoy it, very much, but that was because of the sights seen and camaraderie encountered and very much DESPITE the current FSS mechanic. I did ask that the DW2 organisers provide some feedback to FD on this. The fss is a good idea, but has some serious design flaws at present, including the seemingly endless scanning of bodies for geological/biological signals which is just a time waster and adds nothing to the game. I will read JManis’s new TipOff thread with interest; it does seem to be a potential source of (cryptic?) clues.

Yeah.. Well... I just can't stomach the FSS. Hardcore exploration and sensible, exciting story lines were my only interests.
Explo had become a chore and about story lines... Just waiting for a real story teller comes again at FD.
But it's me and I'd love to be proved wrong. That's why I keep reading this thread even when I have ED shelved for months.

Yeah.. Well... I just can't stomach the FSS. Hardcore exploration and sensible, exciting story lines were my only interests.
Explo had become a chore and about story lines... Just waiting for a real story teller comes again at FD.
But it's me and I'd love to be proved wrong.

Thing is with the research I do, i don’t look at what other people have done before me and I just do it.. leads to some issues as other people have thought about similar ideas etc which I just didn’t know was around
Just a general statement

1. Honk
2. Open FSS
3. Examine spectrum to determine if there are bodies I may want to scan
4. Close FSS
5. Fly around identifying system bodies using parallax observations
6. Perform close fly-by of bodies to auto-resolve
6a. I may occasionally stop to check the FSS spectrum to see if I've located everything of interest

Depending on the system, I may also do the following after auto-resolving all bodies:

7. Open FSS
8. Zoom into landable bodies to check for biological/geological sites
9. Fly to identified sites and map the body

This process keeps the time I spend in the FSS to an absolute minimum and removes the necessity to play 'hunt the blob' and 'tune n zoom'. In addition, I feel a sense of achievement for every body I find by parallax, especially those off the orbital plane or long distances from the drop-in point.